THIAMYHSPLAEC ESIXTNLATIE

METAPHYSICAL EXISTENTIAL

NEER
STENIENC DECRATSES
SENTIENCE RENE
DESCARTES

At the end of the lesson, the students

must be able to:
a. Recognize the three
components that makes up a THE N A TURE OF
human HUMAN
b. Differentiate soul from spirit
c. Understand human as an
PERSONHOOD
embodied spirit
 Philosophy define the Human
Person
• Philosophers think about upon the
concept of the Human Person and what
What does being a human makes him or her a different in nature
person mean? and entity.
•“Human Person” refers to the
individual, and all the attributes and
characteristics that set him or her
apart from other human beings.

Among the many approaches to philosophical

study of the human person, two general kinds
can be distinguished:

1. Metaphysical approach- focuses on the • Like all other animals, human beings
kinds of substances or materials and posses SENTIENCE –The ability to feel
capacities that uniquely make up a and experience and perceive things.
human person,
2. Existential approach, which focuses on
the kind of life, or mode of existence,
that is unique to a human person.

Human as an A human person is a living being that

contains a real and consisting power to
Embodied Spirit. direct its own development towards
fulfillment through perfect,
unconditional, and infinite truth, love
goodness, beauty, unity will do so if the
proper conditions are met.
•Metaphysical approach deals with what
of a human person
•Existential approach deals with who of a
human person.
For example, the fictional character Tarzan. more? Some believe so, while some do
Tarzan has the what of a human person;
but while living with the apes, he has the
who of an ape. Tarzan has the physical
features and mental capacities of a human addition to his/her body.
person, he lives the way of life of an ape.
The human component is sometimes
referred to as the “soul”, sometimes as the
“mind”, and sometimes as the “spirit”.
Generally each term emphasizes a certain
aspect of the non-bodily human three
components:
•Soul emphasizes its life-giving function.
•Mind emphasizes its consciousness.
•Spirit emphasizes its non-bodily, non-
biological, or non-physical nature.
“And the Lord God formed man of
the dust of the ground, and breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life; and
man became a living soul”.
Genesis 2:7
One undeniable fact about human person
is that he/she has a body, which has
certain physical properties, the ones
usually studied in biology. Is a human
person just his/her body and nothing
not. Those who do not believe, things
that a human person also has a non-
bodily component, something that is in
•Spirit- refers only to the immaterial
face of humanity that connects with
God.
•Soul- refers to both the immaterial
and material aspects of humanity.
The word soul means “life”. It is who
we are.
The possibility that humans have a
spiritual component gives rise to the
question of “What essentially makes
up a human person?”, or “Which
component, the body or the spirit,
essentially defines a human person?”
There are three possible answers;

•First human person is essentially
just his/her body and nothing more.
This position naturally results from
the belief that humans do not have
a spiritual component. Simply, if
there is no such thing as a spirit,
then a human person is essentially
just his/her body. We shall call this
as unspirited body view
•Third is that a human person is essentially
the unity of his/her body and spirit. This
view also maintains that the human person
has both body and spirit but claims that the
human person is essentially the unity of
these two components and this view results
from the belief that the body and the spirit
cannot exist independently of one another.
That is, each will not survive with the
absence of the other. We shall call this
position the embodied spirit view.
Plato and Rene Descartes are two strong
supporters of disembodied spirit.
Plato- Greek Philosopher
•Soul and Body
•“to learn is to remember”
Rene Descartes- French Philosopher
•Mind and Matter
•“I think, therefore I am”.
•Second is that a human person is essentially
just his/her spirit. The view maintains that
the human person has both body and spirit
but claims that is the spirit that essentially
defines the human person. This view results
from the belief that while the body is
dependent on the spirit, the spirit is not
dependent on the body. Meaning, the body
will die if there is no spirit, but the spirit will
survive even if there is no body. We shall call
this as disembodied spirit.
•Two strong supporters of disembodied spirit
view are Plato and Rene Descartes. Both
philosophers believe that the spirit and the
body are two different kinds of entities or
substances in the body is physical while the
spirit is nonphysical. This view is often called
as substance dualism
•Plato and Descartes also believe that the
spirit is independent of the body in that the
spirit can survive without the body while the
body cannot survive without the spirit. This
lead both philosophers to believe in the
immortality of the spirit.
Plato believes that one learns by remembering
what one once knew, but have somehow
forgotten. For Plato, this can be possible if the
soul had existed in a state prior to its union with
the body where it acquired knowledge of
everything but which is not occupied with body.
And once a soul leaves the body, what it has
learned through recollection in that lifetime will
again be forgotten the moment it occupies the
body. And since soul is immaterial, then they
are not composed of parts, and if they are not
composed of parts, then they cannot
decompose and thus they cannot die.

Aristotle’s Concept ofMan
• While Plato thought of a dichotomybetween
the body and soul, according to Aristotle,
there is none
• The body and soul are in state of unity – inhis
so-called hylomorphic doctrine.
• Aristotle explains to us the four orders of
beings in this world which are properly called
hylomorphic namely, non- living bodies,
plants, animals, and men.
Aristotle presented the conceptsof the
kinds of soul:
• Rational Soul – Ranks the highest for it takes
responsibility the functions of vegetativeand
sensitive souls. It is capable of thinking,
reasoning, willing, reflecting, and deciding
apart from sensing and growing.
• Sensitive Soul – It feeds itself, it grows, it
reproduces, and it hasfeelings
• Vegetative Soul – Capable of feeding, growing
and reproducing itself.
The Value of TheBody
• As the appearance and
subjectivity , the body has a
unique value and dignity. It
directs a person not only to
the world and others but
also to God.
• Hylomorphic derived its etymology
from two Greek words, hyle which
means “matter” and morphe which
means “form”.
• The soul acts as pure actuality of
the body, while the body is a
material entity that posses the
potentiality for life.
Scholastic (Thomaistic) Concept of the
Human Person
• He was regarded of Christianizing the philosophy
of Aristotle
• St. Thomas Aquinas was significantly influenced
by the thinking of the great Greek philosopher
Aristotle.
• The presupposition that the body and the soul
are 2 distinct entities of totally different natures,
having completely distinct casual powers rooted
in its different natures, in which has become
accessible to us for observation in thoroughly
diverse ways.
 • Both Aristotle and St. Thomas
• The universal element common in all living studied them as a function of the
beings is the soul.
whole of which it is a part.
• The body and the soul are distinctive parts of
the same entity. St. Thomas would often • He realized that even if almost
reiterate unum convertitur cum ente (there is everything can be doubted, there is
one entity, absolutely speaking, at any time
there is a being having one act of existence,
one thing that cannot be doubted.
even if the being in query is composed of
numerous parts).

One of these three views, there are at least three
reasons why the embodied spirit view should be the
most preferable.
1. First, it maintains human freedom, which is
negated by the unspirited view being just a body,
all actions of a human person will be determined
by natural laws).
2. Second, as it gives importance to the soul, it also
acknowledges the value of the body, which the
disembodied spirit view neglects.
3. Third, it can accommodate opposing views, as we
saw in the cases of Aristotle and Aquinas, on the
immortality of the human soul.
Answer the following questions:
QUIZ
1. It refers to the individual, and all the attributes and
characteristics that set him or her apart from other
humanbeings.
2. Theability to feel andexperience and perceivethings.
3. It focuses on the kind of life, or mode of existence,
that is unique to a human person.
4. It focuses on the kinds of substances or materials
and capacities that uniquely make up a human
person,
5-7: Give the three non-bodily human components.

8. This view results from the belief that while the

body is dependent on the spirit, the spirit is not According To The West
dependent on the body.
9. This view results from the belief that the body The Notion of The Human Person
and the spirit cannot exist independently of one
another. As Embodied Spirit.
10. The belief that humans do not have a spiritual
component.
11-12. Two supporters of disembodied spirit.
13-14. Two supporters of embodied spirit.
15. What do you call to the doctrine that Aristotle
made?
 Man as “Capable HumanBeing”:
• Man has the capacity to tell a story in order to
ascertain that there are things in life leftundone.
• The narrative of our life must use the capacity of
both to understand its hidden possibilities
3 things to be highlighted in our life in quest of the
narrative
• Not to see life as something routinary| mechanical
• To find its meaning again and again
• To accept things in life as they are, but one should go
beyond these lived human actions .
• III. To accept things in life as they are, butone
should go beyond these lived human actions -
Tostruggle with the text is tantamount to
saying to struggle with the reality of life - For
Paul Ricoer, struggling with life is finding its
true meaning -struggle is inevitable in life, but
to experience the reality of life is for human to
grow and go beyond the lived experience in
order to find itsessence
At the end of the lesson, the
students should be able to:
•Identify the three spiritual
philosophies.
•Distinguish his/her own limitations
and the possibilities of his/her
transcendence.
•Appreciate the importance of three
spiritual philosophies.
• I. Not to see life as something routinary/mechanical -
identity is not just keeping the same, but changes intime
and always in the making -to see life as routinary or
mechanical is to make it tautologous -for Paul Ricoer, ‘the
enemy of memory is repetition’ -always see life everydayas
a new beginning
• II. To find its meaning again and again -MEANING in
Filipino is kahulugan Ka| kaputol or kapatid, binds or
connect something Hulog| put into a deeper level in order
to grasp the real essence of being -In our life, there is a
tendency to see it as routinary\mechanical leading to its
absurdity -Paul Ricoer is suggesting to us the idea to always
anchor our lives to the ultimate source of meaning
The Formation of the HumanBeing
• the aim of self-formation is to make each
human being becomes what God wants him to
be
• Man must free himself from mereconformity
and imitation
• Self- formation is very essential in lifewhere
we realize the plan of God inus
• Life is an endless search for meaning
T ranscendence
in G lobal
A ge(E ast)
 Transcendence
• An act of rising above something to a
superior state
• State of excelling or surpassing or
going beyond usual limits of
material experience
• Comes from the Latin prefix trans,
meaning “beyond”, and the word
scandare, meaning to "climb".
Brahman
• Most Hindus believe that Brahman is
present in every person as the eternal
spirit or soul, called the atman.
• For the Indians, God first created
sound and the universe arose from it.
Brahman contains everything: creation
and destruction, male and female,
good and evil, movement and stillness
Human being possess dual
nature:
• The spiritual and immortal
essence (soul)
• Empirical life and character.
Between the two natures, “soul” is
the ultimate real.
Hinduism
• Hinduism is one of the oldest Eastern
traditions practiced by hundreds of
millions of people for about 5,000 years
• At the heart of Hinduism lies the idea
of human beings' quest for absolute
truth, so that one's soul and self
Brahman (Absolute Soul) orAtman
(self) might become one.
The Aum
• The most sacred sound.It is the root of
the universe and everything that exists and
it continues to hold everything together.
Karma (ø ēŀ)
• It refers to intentional actions
that affect one's fortunes in
this life and the next.
• Humanity's basic goal in life is
the liberation (moksha) of
spirit (jiva).
 Moksha
• It is the transcendent state attained
as a result of being released from
the cycle of rebirth.
Samsara
It is the beginning-less cycle of repeated birth, mundane
existence and dying again that all beings pass through.
Samsara is considered to be dukkha, unsatisfactory and
painful, perpetuated by desire and ignorance (avidya ),
and the resulting karma.

Hinduism's Primary Values

1. Wealth
2. Pleasure
3. Duty
4. Enlightenment

Transmigration/Metempsychosis System of Caste

• It is a doctrine that adheres to the belief that a
person’s soul passes into some other •The system which
creature. divides Hindus into rigid
• Hindus believe the atman repeatedly takes hierarchical groups based on
on a body until moksha. their karma (work) and dharma.
• If a person has led a good life, the soul goes
upward the scale. The soul of an evil
person, on the other hand, may pass into
the bodyof an animal.

These are expressed in the trimurti andare:

Brahman- the creator
Vishnu- the preserver
Shiva- the destroyer
Dharma is an important term in Indianreligions.
In Hinduism it means 'duty', 'virtue',
'morality', even 'religion' and it refers to the
power which upholds the universe and
society.

• The Upanishads are a collection of texts that
contain some of the central philosophical
concepts of Hinduism; and is also consideredby
Hindus to contain utterances concerning the
nature of ultimate reality and describing the
character of and path to human salvation.
Nirvana
The highest state that someone can attain, a state
of enlightenment, meaning a person's individual
desires and suffering go away
Siddhartha Gautama(Buddha)
He turned away from Hinduism to seek for answers to the
riddle of life's sufferings, disease, oldage, and death.
Four Noble Truths
1. Life is full of suffering;
2. Suffering is caused by passionate desires,lusts,
cravings;
3. Only as these are obliterated, will sufferingcease;
4. Such eradication of desire may be accomplishedonly
by following the Eightfold Path ofearnest endeavor.
States of Sublime Condition
•Love
•Sorrow of others
•Joy in the joy of others
•Equanimity as regards one's
own joy and sorrows.
Buddhism:FromTearsto
Enlightenment
• Like stars fading and vanishing at dawn,
Like bubbles on a fast moving stream,
Like morning dewdrops evaporating on
blades of grass, like a candle flickering in
a stormy wind, echoes, mirages, and
phantoms hallucinations and like a
dream.
- The Buddha, Eight Smiles of Illusion
EightfoldPath
1. Right belief in and acceptance of the "FourfoldTruth";
2. Right aspiration for one's self and forothers;
3. Right speech that harms no one;
4. Right conduct, motivated by goodwill toward allhuman
beings;
5. Right means of livelihood, orearning one's living by
honorable means;
6. Right endeavor, or effort to directone's energies toward
wise ends;
7. Right mindfulness in choosing topics for thought;and
8. Right meditation or concentration to the point of complete
absorption in mystic ecstasy.
Axioms
• Cease to do evil
• Learn to do good
• Purify your own mind
 The Biblical God andHumanity
• In the 5th century,Augustines writing is considered to be
the most influential in theearly medieval period.
-this section looks at the reasonableness of belief in Gods
existence.
-Theistic Hypothesis treating the statement "God exists" asa
hypothesis
-Religious people do not treat Gods existence as ahypothesis.
-The religious problem in the Old Testament narratives isnot
Atheism the denial of God but Polytheism the worship of
too manygods.
-in the new testament the reality of God is unquestioned
because the Jesus of Nazareth the eternal God became
flesh and dwelt among human beings.
-philosophy is "amor sapiential", the love of
wisdom. Hence it is the love of God it is then
religious
-All knowledge leads to God so that faith
supplement and enlightens reason that may
proceed to ever richer and fuller
understanding.
"Human beings alone, without God, are bound
to fail"
For Augustine(354-430 CE)
-Teachings of christianity are based on the love
of God which Augustine's, Aquinas', and
Anselm's arguments rooted.
-Christianity as presenting the full revelation of
the true God, is the only full and true
philosophy.
-When comes the knowledge of God? It starts
with faith and made perfect byunderstanding.
Evaluate Limitations(East)
1. FORGIVENESS-we are freed from our anger
and bitterness. - the hardness ofour heart is
reinforced by whole series of rational
arguments.
2. THEBEAUTYOFNATURE-Theres is perfection
in every sinble flower; this what the three
philosophies believed. - these kinds of
experiences can be truly moment of graceand
need to be praise.
3. VULNERABILITY-to be invulnerable is somehow
inhuman. To be vulnerable is to be human. -
without acknowledging the help of others is to
live without meaning and direction. -Dependence
on others are not a sign of weakness but being
true with ourselves
4. FAILURE - it force us to confront ouf weaknesses
and limitations. -such acceptance of our failures
makes us hope and trust that all can be brought
into good.
5.LONELINESS-our loneliness can be rooted
from our sense of vulnerability and fear of
death. -this is a common a experience. -with
our loneliness we can realize that our
dependence on other people or gadgets is
possessiveness that we can be free from.

• 6.LOVE - to love is to experience fichness,

lositivity, and transcendence. -Life is full of
risks, fears and commitment,pain and
sacrificing and giving up things we want for
the sake of the one we love. - in a buddhist
view "the more we love, the more we risks
and fears there are in life"